Caspian Sea

His mouthful of gold teeth arrayed in a broad grin, Vova stepped over the carcasses of his latest catch - four glistening Caspian Sea sturgeon, armor-plated, freshly gutted and writhing in the grass. "The river feeds us!" Vova enthused, as heedless of the twitchings of the giant fish as he is of the death throes of Russia's once-mighty caviar industry, a massacre to which he was contributing. Using a filthy plastic tub, his friend Genya set about straining, rinsing and salting the sturgeons' yield, 25 pounds of pearly black caviar.

This South Florida city may be a long way from the Caspian Sea, but it has proclaimed Thursday as Azerbaijan Independence Day. The City Commission issued the proclamation Wednesday in honor of the estimated 150 Azerbaijani-Americans who call Hallandale Beach home and in commemoration of the 21st anniversary of the country's independence from the USSR. Mayor Joy Cooper encouraged city residents to observe the occasion in the spirit of democracy, equal rights and the freedoms of speech, religion and assembly.

This South Florida city may be a long way from the Caspian Sea, but it has proclaimed Thursday as Azerbaijan Independence Day. The City Commission issued the proclamation Wednesday in honor of the estimated 150 Azerbaijani-Americans who call Hallandale Beach home and in commemoration of the 21st anniversary of the country's independence from the USSR. Mayor Joy Cooper encouraged city residents to observe the occasion in the spirit of democracy, equal rights and the freedoms of speech, religion and assembly.

For Big Sur getaway, expect to spend big bucks Q. Three friends would like to spend their special birthdays in Big Sur, Calif. Can you suggest a resort? A. With its bluffs and boundless Pacific views, Big Sur is an ideal setting for a party. But venues are limited. "In Big Sur, you have low end and high end; there's no middle ground," says Diane Allen, who runs Elegant Events (www.bigsurweddings.com), which organizes special events in the area. "If I were planning this, I would spend two nights in Carmel and one night in Big Sur."

Two South Florida businessmen who sell some of the world's most expensive fish eggs -- caviar from Caspian Sea sturgeon -- are trying to raise these endangered fish in Florida. Ukrainian immigrants Mark Zaslavsky and Mark Gelman, owners of Miami-based Marky's Caviar, which sells gourmet foods, began importing live Caspian Sea sturgeon last June and now have 100 of them on a fish farm in Pierson, west of Daytona Beach. Of the 100, which range from 5 to 10 years old, more than 60 are beluga sturgeon and the remainder are osetra and sevruga varieties, which also produce caviar.

For Big Sur getaway, expect to spend big bucks Q. Three friends would like to spend their special birthdays in Big Sur, Calif. Can you suggest a resort? A. With its bluffs and boundless Pacific views, Big Sur is an ideal setting for a party. But venues are limited. "In Big Sur, you have low end and high end; there's no middle ground," says Diane Allen, who runs Elegant Events (www.bigsurweddings.com), which organizes special events in the area. "If I were planning this, I would spend two nights in Carmel and one night in Big Sur."

On a dusty finger of land in the sprawling delta where the Volga River drains into the Caspian Sea, Vera Visokogorskaya is a Mary Poppins figure in a white smock, hovering and fussing over 75,000 baby sturgeon she is raising in a run-down state hatchery. On another finger of the Volga delta, a fisherman named Aleksei described life as a poacher, who catches sturgeon under the cover of darkness to eat the meat and sell caviar ripped from the females to black marketeers. These two residents of Russia's caviar-producing region represent the intensifying clash of interests among Russians and their newly independent neighbors along the shores of the Caspian, the world's largest inland sea. After a century of supplying the world with caviar, some Russian varieties of which today may fetch as much as $2,000 a pound in Geneva, Paris and New York, the Caspian sturgeon population, 70 percent of the world's reserves, is being harvested at a rate that can be sustained for only a few more years, experts and law enforcement officials say. Though Russia and Iran have been stocking the Caspian Sea with up to 100 million baby sturgeon a year since the 1960s, the fish population is plummeting.

Beluga caviar fresh from Orlando, anyone? It's no Disney World fantasy. A Miami-based food importer, Marky's Caviar, is starting a fish farm in Central Florida to raise prized beluga sturgeon from the Caspian Sea for their gourmet eggs. Why go through the hassle, when you can import the caviar directly? Company President Mark Zaslavsky said he's worried about shrinking supplies from the Caspian Sea, partly because of over-fishing there. In March, he announced an accord with Russian caviar producer Raskat to buy beluga, osetra and sevruga without killing adult female sturgeon.

Capping a case that exposed a large-scale caviar smuggling ring, a Maryland company, two of its officials and a third person pleaded guilty Friday to federal fraud, smuggling and wildlife endangerment charges. The company agreed to pay a $10.4 million fine, which prosecutors described as the largest ever in a wildlife smuggling case. The guilty pleas, entered in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, Md., followed a prolonged investigation of a sophisticated black-market operation. The inquiry ranged from the shores of the Caspian Sea and the Mississippi River to the first-class cabins of American Airlines jets and the shelves of gourmet stores in Manhattan, Greenwich, Conn.

By DAN MORGAN and DAVID B. OTTAWAY The Washington Post, January 22, 1998

In early December, four Afghan clerics stepped from a helicopter onto an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico operated by Unocal Corp., the California-based global energy company. Representing the ultra-conservative Taliban Islamic militia that controls most of Afghanistan, the mullahs inspected the latest deep-water drilling technology, ate a meal prepared according to Islamic rules _ a gesture arranged by their corporate hosts _ and headed back to the mainland for meetings with their new business associates from Unocal.

By Christopher Pala And Florence Fabricant New York Times News Service, September 16, 2004

The U.N. agency that controls trade in endangered species has halted exports of caviar until the countries where it is produced comply with an agreement to protect sturgeon, says an official of the agency. The main exporting countries, those that border the Caspian Sea, have failed to provide an accurate measurement of how much much sturgeon is illegally harvested, the official, Dr. Jim Armstrong, deputy secretary-general of the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, said in an interview at the agency's headquarters in Geneva.

Two South Florida businessmen who sell some of the world's most expensive fish eggs -- caviar from Caspian Sea sturgeon -- are trying to raise these endangered fish in Florida. Ukrainian immigrants Mark Zaslavsky and Mark Gelman, owners of Miami-based Marky's Caviar, which sells gourmet foods, began importing live Caspian Sea sturgeon last June and now have 100 of them on a fish farm in Pierson, west of Daytona Beach. Of the 100, which range from 5 to 10 years old, more than 60 are beluga sturgeon and the remainder are osetra and sevruga varieties, which also produce caviar.

Beluga caviar fresh from Orlando, anyone? It's no Disney World fantasy. A Miami-based food importer, Marky's Caviar, is starting a fish farm in Central Florida to raise prized beluga sturgeon from the Caspian Sea for their gourmet eggs. Why go through the hassle, when you can import the caviar directly? Company President Mark Zaslavsky said he's worried about shrinking supplies from the Caspian Sea, partly because of over-fishing there. In March, he announced an accord with Russian caviar producer Raskat to buy beluga, osetra and sevruga without killing adult female sturgeon.

On a dusty finger of land in the sprawling delta where the Volga River drains into the Caspian Sea, Vera Visokogorskaya is a Mary Poppins figure in a white smock, hovering and fussing over 75,000 baby sturgeon she is raising in a run-down state hatchery. On another finger of the Volga delta, a fisherman named Aleksei described life as a poacher, who catches sturgeon under the cover of darkness to eat the meat and sell caviar ripped from the females to black marketeers. These two residents of Russia's caviar-producing region represent the intensifying clash of interests among Russians and their newly independent neighbors along the shores of the Caspian, the world's largest inland sea. After a century of supplying the world with caviar, some Russian varieties of which today may fetch as much as $2,000 a pound in Geneva, Paris and New York, the Caspian sturgeon population, 70 percent of the world's reserves, is being harvested at a rate that can be sustained for only a few more years, experts and law enforcement officials say. Though Russia and Iran have been stocking the Caspian Sea with up to 100 million baby sturgeon a year since the 1960s, the fish population is plummeting.

Capping a case that exposed a large-scale caviar smuggling ring, a Maryland company, two of its officials and a third person pleaded guilty Friday to federal fraud, smuggling and wildlife endangerment charges. The company agreed to pay a $10.4 million fine, which prosecutors described as the largest ever in a wildlife smuggling case. The guilty pleas, entered in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, Md., followed a prolonged investigation of a sophisticated black-market operation. The inquiry ranged from the shores of the Caspian Sea and the Mississippi River to the first-class cabins of American Airlines jets and the shelves of gourmet stores in Manhattan, Greenwich, Conn.

"I would not want to be out of caviar," says John Hansen, who runs the wine department at Strohecker's, an exclusive grocery in Portland, Ore. "Not this New Year's." Lots of people are bent on serving the very best for the approaching millennium festivities. But high-end Year 2000 celebration plans face serious complications when it comes to caviar. The sturgeon that produce the best eggs face extinction, and the black gold has reached prices of nearly $60 an ounce. The Russian Mafia has moved in on the action, and unscrupulous dealers are smuggling illegal eggs into the United States.

Pembroke Pines city employees and volunteers presented an impromptu performance by two prominent Russian musicians to benefit children who suffer from the effects of the 1986 nuclear plant disaster in Chernobyl. "When we heard that representatives of the project `Children of Russia's Hot Spots' were coming to Florida, we acted quickly to give them the welcome they deserve, publicity they need, and possibly donations," said Marty Larsen, a Pembroke Pines grants consultant. The performamce last month was organized in just 16 hours for the project representatives, who were on their way to a meeting with the Russian-American Chamber of Commerce in Orlando.

By Christopher Pala And Florence Fabricant New York Times News Service, September 16, 2004

The U.N. agency that controls trade in endangered species has halted exports of caviar until the countries where it is produced comply with an agreement to protect sturgeon, says an official of the agency. The main exporting countries, those that border the Caspian Sea, have failed to provide an accurate measurement of how much much sturgeon is illegally harvested, the official, Dr. Jim Armstrong, deputy secretary-general of the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, said in an interview at the agency's headquarters in Geneva.

Spoils of war are hard to imagine for Russian soldiers confronting Islamic separatists in the southern republic of Dagestan. The mountain villages are small, poor and inhospitable with names that sound foreign even to Russians. Remote in summer, by late autumn the villages become prisoners of the snow and cold of the Great Caucasus. The Russian military has lost once already in the region, the devastating 1994-96 war in Chechnya. Yet Moscow is sending more and more soldiers to fight, and to die, in Dagestan.

By DAN MORGAN and DAVID B. OTTAWAY The Washington Post, January 22, 1998

In early December, four Afghan clerics stepped from a helicopter onto an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico operated by Unocal Corp., the California-based global energy company. Representing the ultra-conservative Taliban Islamic militia that controls most of Afghanistan, the mullahs inspected the latest deep-water drilling technology, ate a meal prepared according to Islamic rules _ a gesture arranged by their corporate hosts _ and headed back to the mainland for meetings with their new business associates from Unocal.